Ridiculously easy VOR Navigation!

are you struggling to understand VOR navigation you want to learn how to make it easy then stick around and I'll show you how to simplify VOR navigation let's start with some definitions and a brief explanation the acronym VOR stands for very high frequency omnidirectional range let's just stick with the basics VOR is a radio navigation Aid that consists of a ground station antenna a receiver and a VOR indicator while there are exceptions vors are usually oriented to Magnetic North the ground station sends out a directional signal that rotates 360 Degrees 30 times every second a second reference signal is sent every time the rotating signal passes 360 Degrees your aircraft's VOR receiver compares the two signals and uses the difference to calculate the bearing or radial the aircraft is from the station the receiver is also capable of using this signal to indicate a bearing to the station and that's it vors can help determine your bearing to or from the station but they don't give any indication of which direction your aircraft is pointing the VOR indicator in your panel of your airplane has four main parts the course index the Omni bearing selector knob or OBS knob the course deviation indicator needle and the two from indicator so how do we use this for navigation for navigation purposes instead of thinking of VOR radials as bearings radiating outward from the VOR I find it helpful to think of them as large arrows similar to similar to The Spinners for many children's games the pointy end of the spinner represents the radio from the station the Pivot Point represents the VOR station itself and the tail represents the bearing to the station using our spinner analogy if our aircraft is here we can tell that our bearing to the station is 45 degrees and our radial from the station would be the reciprocal or 225 degrees if our aircraft is here then our radial from the station would be 45 degrees while our bearing to the station would be 225 degrees so if you want to fly to the station turn the OBS knob on the VOR indicator until the needle centers and the two flag is showing then turn your aircraft until it's pointed the same direction shown by the VOR course index as long as the heading indicator and the course index agree and you keep the needle centered you will fly right to the VOR you'll know when you pass the station because the two flag will flip to from if you're asked to identify what radial you are from the station turn the OBS knob until the needle centers with the from flag showing then read the bearing on the course index okay now that we've gotten the basics out of the way let's dig a little further if you draw a line that is perpendicular to the arrow where the arrow crosses the VOR anything on the pointy side of that Arrow would be considered from the station while everything on the tail end would be considered to the station for example if you select radial 360 everything from radial 271 to radial 089 will be from the station while radial 0 9 1 through 269 would be to the station interestingly when you cross radial 090 and 270 there should be no Flags showing because you're parallel with the station all this becomes important when we start using the course deviation indicator needle the CDI needle indicates whether you are right or left of course and by how much the needle is designed to indicate where the course is relative to the airplane and this is critical when the airplane is heading in the same direction indicated by the VOR course index to illustrate if the airplane is here and the airplane heading and VOR course are aligned then the course is to the right of the airplane and the needle would be deflected appropriately plus if you look closely since it's on the tail side of the course the two flags should be showing and it is in this case our VOR indicator is showing we need to fly to the right to center the needle once the needle is centered we'll be on the selected course and can turn back to a heading of 360. as long as the needle stays centered we'll be flying the 360 bearing to the station so here's a question what would the VOR indication be if the airplane were in the same location but flying heading 270. this is where VOR navigation becomes tricky as you know the VOR doesn't indicate which direction direction the aircraft is flying it only indicates where the aircraft is relative to the VOR station and the selected radial so in this case the VOR and heading indicators would look like this notice that while the heading indicator now shows West the VOR indication is exactly the same as it was before now if the airplane is here and the airplane and VOR are aligned how should the needle be deflected and what would the two from Flags show to give you a little help where is the selected radial in relationship to the plane is it to the right or the left further is the airplane flying toward the VOR or away from it here is how both the heading indicator and the VOR should look notice the needle is deflected to the left because the selected radial is to the left of the airplane and the from flag is showing because we're flying away from the VOR now let's use three examples from the written test to see if you really understand this information if you download a copy of the Private Pilot written test supplement I'll put a link in the description below you will find there are only nine VOR images that appear on the written test these are in figure 28. so if you're comfortable with these nine images then you should be comfortable on the written test let's start with image number one what do we see well most people see the needle deflected to the right which means the course is to the right so the airplane must be on the left side of the radial second the two flag is showing so the airplane must be on the tail side of the radial so this means the airplane should be in the bottom left quadrant but wait we aren't done yet we need to turn our diagram so that it aligns with the heading 2 1 0 as the VOR index course index indicates that means that the aircraft is somewhere east of the VOR does that make sense now let's look at image number two what can be seen in this one well the needle appears to be centered so that means that the airplane is on the radial however which side well since the from flag is now showing the airplane should be on the radial side and this means it should be on the line on the top half of the VOR area as before we need to rotate the radial so that it matches the course index of 2 1 0. this indicates your airplane should be in the South Southwest of the VOR still making sense finally let's look at image number seven this one shows the needle deflecting to the left so that means that the chorus is to the left now here's something interesting there's no to or from flag that means the airplane is crossing the two from line so the airplane should be here again if we align the image to the VOR this time to the 030 degree radial we see that the airplane should be southeast of the VOR so how did you do our VOR is making a little more sense did this raise more questions please let me know in the comments if this video was helpful please hit the thumbs up and consider subscribing also please check out the links in the description if you're an Amazon Shopper using the link doesn't cost you anything extra but by clicking on the link any purchases you make can provide a small commission that helps support the production of these videos or you can send a tip using buy me a coffee either would be greatly appreciated finally if you're looking for more Flight Training information I would recommend watching this video next as always thank you for watching fly safely and I'll see you next time

Channel: Scott Koon CFI

Views: 91,973

Keywords: aviation tutorials, Checkride prep, Checkride Private Pilot, Checkride tips, Checkride questions, VFR flight planning, Aviation, Mzeroa, M0a, Fly8ma, Finer Points, Cyndy Holleman, Free Pilot Training, VOR Explained, VOR Navigation made easy, made simple, VOR Navigation explained, VOR Navigation for Dummies

Id: U-AcHM9x2mA

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 27 2023